Today as we look at what John’s
gospel tells us about the Holy Spirit two words come to mind: conserving and
creating.
In order to get at them we need to
roll back our thoughts to the crisis the disciples of Jesus faced as a result
of his death, resurrection, and ascension.
They had built their faith around him – Jesus alive, present, walking
and talking with them, teaching them, guiding them. Without him around, now what?
John’s gospel does a particularly
good job at helping us understand this.
In John’s gospel Jesus repeatedly says that he and the Father are one –
or that he is indeed the fullness of God; and that he is the ultimate
revelation of God to humanity about God’s nature.
Many people see God in the Old
Testament as stern and maybe a bit mean.
Then they see God in the New Testament as loving and gracious. Or, they perceive God as Father to be powerful
and judgmental; then Jesus is kind and mild.
There’s good reason for people developing these ideas about God, but in
truth they are inaccurate. God in the
Old Testament is actually quite loving and forgiving. There is plenty of accountability in the New
Testament from God too. And God as
Father is not mean while Jesus is nice.
Again, as John’s gospel portrays it,
they are one. You may remember these
verses from last week’s gospel:
Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the
Father, and we will be satisfied.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with
you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me
has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not
believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say
to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his
works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.
So
with Jesus being gone the question is, was Jesus’ revelation of God only fully
available to the first generation of believers?
Was it only available to those who had physical contact with him? Was Jesus’ revelation of God limited to one
particular moment in history; and then become weaker after that?
Now
let’s move four decades further in time to the time of John’s gospel being
written. At this time we’re talking
about a crisis of existence itself.
Whenever we read the gospels we need to keep the reality of that time in
mind. In the year 64 Rome had
burnt. Rome, the city that seemed to
have been around forever, and would seemingly last forever, was crippled by
flames. Emperor Nero, leader at the
time, is believed by many to have been insane.
Then Jewish revolts rise in Jerusalem beginning in the year 66. In 70 the Romans obliterated Jerusalem.
All
the world was nuts. Jews lived in fear
and confusion. Christians were part of
all that mix. Christians at that time
were firmly certain that they were living in the twilight of the world. The end was sure to come, and soon. God had come in the form of Jesus to make an
ultimate revelation of God’s nature and now God was going to wrap up the whole
universal enterprise.
Into
all of that enter John’s gospel and its explanation of the Holy Spirit – or in
John’s terms, the Paraclete. Paraclete
is a Greek word, and a strange one for us.
Despite being so-called “theologically educated” I still can’t hear the
word Paraclete and not have the first image that comes to my mind be a little
parakeet. But the word is
Paraclete. There is nothing close in the
English language. Our Bibles translate
it as Advocate. That’s not wrong, it’s
just very incomplete. Paraclete means
all of these things simultaneously: exhorter and encourager, comforter and
consoler, helper, appealer, counselor, and advocate. The Holy Spirit as Paraclete then continues
the ministry and presence of God even as Jesus is no longer physically present.
In
a few verses past our gospel reading Jesus says, “Abide in me as I abide in
you” (15:4). The Spirit then means there
are no time or space limits on Jesus’ love, on the truth about God, and on our
access to that truth and love. And so,
we go back to where we began with the Holy Spirit being conserving and
creating.
The
Holy Spirit is conserving in that it enables us at any time to reach back and
“remember” the physical life and ministry of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is responsible for the
creation of the Bible as the Word of God.
We all have access to it at any time.
The Spirit also helps us in our reading and understanding of it, complicated
and confusing as it can be.
Also,
the continuation of Christian faith does not rest on our shoulders. We did not receive something from the past
that we must pass on exactly to future generations; with each passing
generation risking watering down the truth of God’s revelation in Jesus. No, the Spirit creates and maintains faith in
us, and it creates and maintains faith in future generations. Faith comes about by God’s grace and will,
not by our own strength.
The
Spirit is also creative. We do not
worship the past. We are not a religion
that tries to stay stuck in time. The
Spirit enables the witness of Jesus to speak to new times and new
circumstances. It also helps us
faithfully examine the past. Remember I
said that the earliest Christians were sure the world would end soon. That thinking is throughout the New
Testament. There’s no denying it. But the fact that we’re here shows that
expectation didn’t happen. Does that
mean we chuck out the scripture as in error?
No, of course not. It means the
Spirit helps us understand their context and expectations. It helps us interpret all of it in new light.
Perhaps
think of it this way. The Bible is a
writing from a specific time and place.
It has to be. As such it cannot
give all the information needed for all times and all places. It’s impossible, and it wouldn’t work.
Imagine
if your task was to give an adolescent what he or she would need to hear from
Jesus to endure what life will bring at age thirty, fifty, or seventy years of
age. Would it even make sense to the
person? Would they be able to take it in
or make sense of it? No. Of course not. In our own faith lives the Spirit guides and
helps throughout with our lives as we learn and grow from different experiences
and grow in wisdom.
So
it is with the scriptures. The New
Testament was written by the earliest Christians to engage their context. They couldn’t write about what the world
would be like in the year 235 or 1060 or 1517, or 2021. However, by the Spirit those words can speak
fresh and new in each age. The life and
teachings of Jesus – the principles of God’s love he embodied – speak to us now
clearly and fully.
It
would be nice if the Spirit just gave us the answers we want and need. But that is not the case. It never was the case. All of the gospels record the disciples
struggling to understand and believe even as they were with Jesus first
hand. We shouldn’t be surprised to have
the same situation. I believe the Spirit
doesn’t give us answers. It accompanies
us into each new day and each new answer.
There can be a lot of conflict and disagreement. And people do get hurt and hurt deeply, but
God’s love and presence is with everyone.
The
final thing that needs to be mentioned is that the Spirit’s work is through the
community of faith. We are not a
collection of individuals with the Spirit working in each of us
individually. It is the Spirit working
among us collectively.
Today
we have two baptisms. While in
extraordinary circumstances we’ll do a baptism in private, we always seek to do
them as a part of regular worship. It is
the community of faith welcoming new people into the community. We share a journey. We share a faith. We share the Spirit.
The
gift of the Spirit is with us always. Sometimes
we may feel it strongly. Sometimes we
may not. But we need not worry. For faith is God’s work, and God is at work
among us.
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